Avatar: The Last Airbender stars Gordon Cormier, Kiawentiio, Ian Ousley, and Miyako spoke with ComingSoon’s Tyler Treese about the second season of the hit Netflix show. The group discussed growing as actors, showing new sides to their characters, and more. Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 is now streaming.
“Avatar: The Last Airbender follows Aang, the young Avatar, as he learns to master the four elements (Water, Earth, Fire, Air) to restore balance to a world threatened by the terrifying Fire Nation. In S2, after a bittersweet victory saving the Northern Water Tribe from the invading Fire Nation, Avatar Aang, Katara, and Sokka regroup and set off on a mission to convince the elusive Earth King to aid in their battle against fearsome Fire Lord Oza,” says the official synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Gordon, this season was really interesting for Aang. We get to see some selfishness from him and some frustration. How was it getting to embrace these darker parts of Aang and getting to show that even though he is the Avatar, he is still growing up and becoming his own person?
Gordon Cormier: Honestly, such a privilege, actually. As an actor, I feel like it just gave me the opportunity to learn more. Throughout the first season, there was definitely not rage being tapped into other than at the very end where I become the Ocean Spirit. But I actually got to educate myself and work with an acting coach about how you can be angry and how you can act angry, which was dope. I was going to say it was a new emotional experience, but no, I’ve definitely been mad at one point before. But yeah, it was just a blessing.
Tyler Treese: Kiawentiio, I thought you and Dallas really got to have some great scenes as the season went on. What stood out about Dallas as a scene partner and really getting to voice Katara’s frustrations, especially when she’s often the voice of reason in many scenarios? Because we know it’s not going to be Sokka.
Kiawentiio: I don’t know. I think Sokka is on that same wave sometimes.
Ian Ousley: Definitely.
Kiawentiio: Yeah, the scenes that I had with Dallas, to be honest, at the start of the season, I was a little bit nervous about them. As much as I was excited because of how iconic and memorable those seasons are from the animation, it felt like a lot of pressure to get it right and to be able to give on the same level with Dallas and be a good scene partner.
With everything that we experienced going through filming Season 2, it helped build up my confidence for that moment, so it was a little less daunting. We also worked on it a bunch with Sarah, and we worked on it a bunch together and had a lot of time before getting into that stuff. So it was actually just really fun to be able to play and get all these different versions so we had everything we needed for that moment.
Tyler Treese: Ian, you’re just so hilarious in this show, but you’re not just comic relief. You have some really great scenes with Maria Zhang, who plays Suki. What did you like about getting to show a more vulnerable side of Sokka than we typically see?
Ian Ousley: Yeah, I felt really blessed. I’ve talked a lot about just how blessed I am to be Sokka. I think when I first got the role, I was like, “No bending? What the heck?” Then immediately, I was like, “Wait, this is such an awesome character,” because he is the most human. He’s the voice of the audience in a way because the audience can relate to Sokka not being able to do any of this stuff.
He gets to explore so much comedy, but also this vulnerability that we’re seeing in Season 2 from him, dealing with all of these emotions that he’s stuffed down from his traumatic childhood. Then, also just exploring the world and seeing all this death and the difference in how the world has changed after the Fire Nation has kind of had its reign.
It was such a fun thing to be able to do those scenes with Kiawentiio because I think we can all relate. The person you can open up to the most, hopefully, is someone who’s like a sibling. It could be a found friend, but for me, it’s my sister in real life too. So it was cool to do that with my on-screen sister here. It was really awesome to be able to round out Sokka in that moment and get to see both sides of what he does.
Tyler Treese: Miyako, I loved you as Toph. My favorite scene was the haiku showdown you have with Sokka. How was filming that sequence?
Miyako: That was, I think, strange for both of us. I remember we were talking to one of our writers, Gabe Llanas, and we were actually going through each of our lines and counting to make sure they were actual 5-7-5 haikus. For me, I think poetry is a beautiful way to have that discussion between Sokka and Toph. I think it tells us a lot about their characters.
I also think it’s one of those iconic things from the animated series that I was excited to get to be a part of and get to put on screen for people.
Thanks to Gordon Cormier, Kiawentiio, Ian Ousley, and Miyako for taking the time to talk about Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2.
